Computer Information - myOddPc
Comcast sues FCC for not letting it own anything it wants
Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
Given Comcast's notoriously shady service, we're not exactly in favor of the company being allowed to
ruthlessly torture service any more markets than necessary, but we can see why it might be a little frustrated with the FCC, which has allowed all sorts of giant phone companies to merge in the past few years, yet still recently decided to block cable companies from owning more than 30 percent of the market. Comcast and the FCC have butted heads in the past on similar
regulatory issues, but this one should be particularly interesting, since FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is currently the focus of a
congressional probe into his handling of the agency. We can actually sort of see Comcast's point -- the FCC probably should allow giant telco mergers while arbitrarily capping cable ownership, but really we'd prefer a lot more competition and a hell of a lot more focus on customer service from all of these companies instead of yet more lawsuits and paperwork.
[Via
TechDirt]
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Varioptic and Seiko to start manufacturing liquid camera lenses
Filed under: Digital Cameras
Could it be that
liquid lenses for cellphone cameras are
finally about to go from
promising-but-
undelivered tech to the real thing? We're not holding out hope -- they didn't rock the world when they popped up in a couple nondescript Samsung phones before -- but Varioptic and Seiko have just announced a deal to crank out 500,000 of the goopy buggers a month starting in Q3, but it's not clear exactly what cellphones these are going to turn up in, apart from being targeted at 5 megapixel camera modules that require continuous auto-focus in video mode.
[Via
Phone Scoop]
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How would you change Chumby?
Filed under: Features
As with
Pleo, many may argue that
Chumby is simply too cute to tweak. But if you can manage to shuffle your emotional attachments to the side for a tick, we're confident there's quite a few things you'd like to see changed. Sure, this totally unique hodgepodge of glanceable information and bedroom mainstays can handle quite a broad variety of tasks right out of the box, but considering that it's built on an open, hackable architecture, it's just
begging for someone to come along and do things better than its creator. So, now that you've had ample time to roll this critter around your domicile, enjoy its abilities and install that hefty
firmware update, what's left to be done? Tell the world below, we're all listening.
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Intel reveals plans for quad-core laptop CPUs
Filed under: Laptops
It looks like your favorite lap burner will get all quad-ified this year, thanks to the folks at Intel, and a little something we call "enthusiast pressure." The hot-to-the-touch CPU rumor mill claims that we'll see the quad-core, 45nm QX9300 hit the scene after the Centrino 2 (aka
Montevina) chips are launched in the second quarter of the year. The general feeling is that the quad-equipped laptops will primarily be heavier, desktop-replacement systems, as the Core 2 Extreme processors are still fairly power hungry. If you haven't already fallen off the edge of your seat, you have our congratulations.
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Japan's Shougaku Ichinensei mag bundles "finger piano" for kids
Filed under: Wearables
Face it, Japan is just cooler than you are. You have a job and a car, Japan? Japan has finger pianos bundled as freebies with manga-centric magazines for 1st graders. You lose. And by "finger piano" we really mean finger piano. Check out the video after the break for a better idea, but basically you mount a sensor onto each finger and plunk away -- the circuit bending potential is immense.
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Wii gets the Super Smash Bros crystal ice treatment
Filed under: Gaming
Captain Awesome and the League of Awesomeness were unavailable for comment. Now if you'll excuse us, we need to go die a few hundred more times in pointlessly difficult platforming levels. Bowser version is after the break.
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RIAA Will Finally Face the Music In Court
Falstaff writes "Exonerated RIAA defendant Tanya Andersen is expected to refile her malicious prosecution lawsuit against the RIAA today. The refiling will mark a significant watershed in the RIAA's fight against P2P users because for the first time, the group's tactics, secret agreements, and fee splitting with MediaSentry are likely to come to light, thanks to discovery. Andersen's attorney says he'll be 'digging into agreements between the RIAA, RIAA member companies, MediaSentry, and the Settlement Support Sentry. Part of that will involve looking at compensation, like how much MediaSentry gets from each settlement. "I'd love to know what kind of bounty MediaSentry got paid to supply erroneous identities to the RIAA," Lybeck says.' The judge has barred further motions to dismiss the complaint, which means the RIAA will have to face the music. 'Unlike the thousands of lawsuits filed so far, the RIAA does not have the luxury of walking away from this case if there's a real chance of embarrassing information being released. "Once discovery happens in the cases the RIAA brings, they run," Lybeck says. "This is our case now, and they can't run."'"
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Physics Journal May Reconsider Wikipedia Ban
I don't believe in imaginary property writes "The flagship physics journal Physical Review Letters doesn't allow authors to submit material to Wikipedia, or blogs, that is derived from their published work. Recently, the journal withdrew their acceptance of two articles by Jonathan Oppenheim and co-authors because the authors had asked for a rights agreement compatible with Wikipedia and the Quantum Wikipedia. Currently, many scientists 'routinely do things which violate the transfer of copyright agreement of the journal.' Thirty-eight physicists have written to the journal requesting changes in their copyright policies, saying 'It is unreasonable and completely at odds with the practice in the field. Scientists want as broad an audience for their papers as possible.' The protest may be having an effect. The editor-in-chief of the APS journals says the society plans to review its copyright policy at a meeting in May. 'A group of excellent scientists has asked us to consider revising our copyright, and we take them seriously,' he says."
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US House Rejects Telecom Amnesty
The US House has just approved a new bill that rejects the retroactive immunity to telecommunication businesses and denies most of the new powers for the US President to spy on citizens without a warrant. "As impressive as the House vote itself was, more impressive still was the floor debate which preceded it. I can't recall ever watching a debate on the floor of either House of Congress that I found even remotely impressive -- until today. One Democrat after the next -- of all stripes -- delivered impassioned, defiant speeches in defense of the rule of law, oversight on presidential eavesdropping, and safeguards on government spying. They swatted away the GOP's fear-mongering claims with the dismissive contempt such tactics deserve, rejecting the principle that has predominated political debate in this country since 9/11: that the threat of the Terrorists means we must live under the rule of an omnipotent President and a dismantled constitutional framework."
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FTC Puts $1.9M Kink in Phone Bill Crammer's Wallet
coondoggie writes to mention that the three largest companies in the billing aggregation market have been hit with a $1.9 million fine in response to the more than $30 million in bogus charges added to consumer's bills. The ringleader of the scam however, Willoughby Farr of Nationwide Connections, has been hit with $35 million and a lifetime ban. "Today's settlement would prohibit the companies from misrepresenting that consumers are obligated to pay for telecommunications charges that have not been expressly authorized. It also would be barred from billing or submitting any telecommunications charges for billing on a consumer's telephone bill unless such charge has been expressly authorized. [...] The FTC still has a case pending against other principals in this case: Yaret Garcia, Erika Riaboukha, and Qaadir Kaid. One other defendant Mary Lou Farr, has already settled with the FTC."
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